Conventionally, nonwoven fabrics have been used in various applications such as clothing, industrial materials, materials of construction and architecture, agricultural and horticultural materials, materials of daily needs, medical and sanitary materials, and the like. Particularly, nonwoven fabrics comprising filaments have been widely used, since they have a higher strength compared with nonwoven fabrics comprising staple fibers, and in addition can be provided with excellent productivity. Particularly, nonwoven fabrics partially processed by thermal press bonding have very excellent strength and hand feeling. However, a nonwoven fabric processed by this method partially has non-bonded portions, and fuzz or pilling is likely to be caused in such non-bonded portions due to friction. Because continuous filaments are more subject to resistance due to friction compared with staple fibers, they easily develop fuzz or pilling. Thus, in a filament nonwoven fabric processed by thermal press bonding, it is very difficult to retain a high strength and good hand feeling, while having abrasion resistance.
For examples, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. (Tokkai Sho) 60-194160 discloses a step of passing a nonwoven fabric through thermal flat rolls so as to provide the nonwoven fabric with a film-like surface, in order to provide abrasion resistance. A nonwoven fabric obtained by this method has good abrasion resistance, but the hand feeling of the nonwoven fabric is deteriorated. Also, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. (Tokkai Sho) 60-199961 discloses partial press bonding of a nonwoven fabric with an embossing roll, followed by adhering fibers with one another with a hot air circulator. However, in this method, because the heat history of the nonwoven fabric becomes large, the hand feeling of the nonwoven fabric is impaired. Moreover, the processing steps become complicated.
As is described above, a filament nonwoven fabric excellent in all of strength, hand feeling, and abrasion resistance has not yet been obtained.
Thus, the present invention has objects to provide a filament nonwoven fabric excellent in all of strength, hand feeling, and abrasion resistance, and to provide absorbent articles using the same.